gnosticism vs. allegory of the cave

either stuck in a cave since birth or trapped in an imperfect evil world, the theories of both " the allegory of the cave" and " gnosticism" intertwine. gnosticism is a theory based on the belief that humans are souls stuck in the material world that was made by an evil abberrition called the demiurge. the demiurge and the supreme god live alongside eachother and according to the belief, to be rid of the imperfect world we inhabit you must have a spiritual experience with god. technically gnosticism is a religion that originated even before christianity. i saw the similarity of gnosticism and plato's allegory of the cave immediatly. they are both theories based on thethought that what if the world we live in isn't real? if it's just a fantasy world created to deprive us from living in reality. gnosticism and plato's allegory really makes us wonder about the world we live in today and what eternally matters to us the most.

allegory of the cave

an allegory by definition is a story in which people, things, and events have a symbolic meaning ; often instructive.the allegory of the cave was created by the greek philospher Plato in his book "The Republic". the allegory of the cave has many other alias'such as "mataphor of the sun", "analogy of the dividing line", "myth of the cave", "metaphor of the cave", and also " the parable of the cave". this story has many names because it is interpreted in many diffrent ways. the allegory of the cave is about people that are prisnors since birth and they are chained doen so the only thing in sight is a wall. behind the prisnors is a blazing fire and in the middle of that fire and prisnors is a walkway. on the walkway is moving plants and animals that make shadows on the wallso the prisnors see the shadows only.a puppet speaks and is echoed on the wall ans the prisnors are persuaded that the words are spoken from the shadows. the prisnors make a game out of naming the shadows and the prisnors that play badly are judged and disliked from the other prisnors. tired of imprisonment a prisnor turns around and is blinded ny the sun escaping into the cave and he finds that the shapes are not real. he notices the sun causes all of the shadow and how it also causes many other things that happen on the land.now a freed prisnor he wishes to not turn back to the cave and the other prisnors do not want to be freed becuase the only thing they ever knew is the cave and they dont want something new and foreign to them. the freed prisnor does not return becuase he would have to adjust to the darkness becuase he is used to the light of the sun and the other prisnors would think that the sun is bad becuase it made him blind. the allegory of the cave is similar to " the matrix" because in the moviethe human world was living in a lie and are compared to the prisnors forced to only see the shadows of the world outside of the cave. and the freed prisnor lives in a free world of sulight where the truth lies and there is no darkness.

paraphrased from www.wikipedia.org

review of the matrix

hey there.. i finally was forced to watch " the matrix". i was never really interested in the movie, it did not really look like a movie that i would personally be interested in. i knew about the movie and some what of what it is about but wasn't interested in finding out any more about it and especially did not want to watch it on my own time. but now that it was a class assignment to watch it what the heck might as well... neo (keanu reeves) is a computer hacker who desperatly wants to find the meaning to 'the matrix'. neo finally gets pulled into the free world through a series of events that involves meeting trinity, a rebel against the matrix, and being chased by the men in black look alikes The Agents .soon neo finally meets morpheus, the leader of the rebels. morpheus believes that neo is "the one' who is going to save mankind from the matrix that they are unaware of.morpheus explains to neo that the matrix is the world that humans live in the year of 2199 where machines control humans and they use humans for their body heat to produce energy to replace the sun that no longer exist because of the polluted dark sky blocking out the sun. this is a world where humans are not aware that they are not in control of their own lives. "the matrix"at first seemed odd and difficult to undertsand but really it was the complete opposite. " the matrix" was a classic case for me of don't judge a book by it's cover. i found this movie to be very original in both direction and screenplay and rises above other acclaimed sci-fi / thriller movies. the matrix is perhaps one of the few sci fi flicks that is suspenseful, intelligent, and sensible since "the terminator". i highly recommend this film just be sure if you want to take the blue pill of the red pill first.